Friendship is Optimal (that one was the hook to this specific black hole of modern culture)Ad AdsurbumOn the wings of AngelsWrong Hospital Niko BellicThe Tale of Gaius NinefingersMyou've gotta be kidding meFor Queen and CountryThe Unicorn at HogwartsThe next level of your studiesStargate EquestriaThe BIG comes to TownThe Brony Guard UnlimitedTimelords and TerrorThe kindness of strangers

That's a strange scatter shot across genres, but that's the result of reading the tvtropes recommendations late at night. I really should know better.

Yes, otherwise I would not have read them. Sure, some of them got a bit tedious and most are not even finished, but I give fanfics the benefit of the doubt. I hold all literature to one standard alone: The ability to communicate ideas and concepts.1 With that, fanfics, even absurd ones like the GTA/FIM crossover, have the advantage over all professional works that they are not bound by their commercial success and get directly to the core of beaming crazy maddening ideas into my mind. But, uh, that's a bit beside the point. The point being: Fanfic fun, more please!

It serves me well. And it's the only one I found that reliably models my opinion about literary works. The work is stalling about minute details? Bad. Nothing is explained? Bad. Cardbord cut-out world building? Bad. Previously unexplored concepts? Good. High quality wordsmithing? Good. Makes me think? Good.

I don't quite consider them a literay work, unless they are supposed to stand alone. In that case they are like poetry: Not my thing (I don't "get" them). But this is starting to turn off topic, so maybe let's move this to the Books forum?

Has anyone seen the Brony documentary? It looks nice, but I'm waiting for the downloadable release on amazon.Edit: Oh, apparantly they accept paypal, that's slightly more convenient than waiting for amazon. I'll report back soon.

I think the animation shorts (and short they are) are among the better parts of the documentary. Overall decent, slightly overdrawn at times and the part in Germany seemed badly edited in comparison to the rest. 6.5/10I was surprised how important the fandom and community are to the people in the documentary. I admit that a few weeks ago I thought this show to be meme mill with more appeal than other shows. And I still think it is, albeit with more values than just fun and giggles. At the very least, oversaturation has not set in yet.

I watched the documentary, and I was laughing at John DeLacie singing. I think part of it was that it reminded me so much of the classic Disney short Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom featuring the singing owl teacher and bird classroom.

Yeah, around the part where he was looking into the class and asking if he "missed anypony else". Some of the background ponies looked suspiciously like fanmade characters. I'm sure they snuck in one or two of them. They did mention fanworks by name, so it's not much of a stretch.

So I'm just going to leave the link to Double Rainboom right here in this very post for all to enjoy.

Spoiler:

MLP meets PPG after Rainbow Dash takes a magic potion that enhances one's abilities (steroids?) created by Twilight. Lots of allusions to Captain America, different Cartoon Network cartoons, and other fandoms, if you can catch them.

Well, that PPG crossover was certainly unexpected. I'm not sure if the episode would have been better with or without it. It certainly didn't have much relevance to what was going on in the first half of the episode. Honestly, I'd simply have Rainbow Dash deal with the hubris and destruction. Then again, that maybe would have been a "too typical" MLP episode.

Overall, quite enjoyable. Some of the references were badly integrated (like the trollface) and the pacing was sometimes unusually slow, but I chalk that up to a matter of taste.

Edit: After watching it a second time, I find it less and less enjoyable. Not bad, but lacking.

Yeah, it seemed to lack a good plot towards the end there, when Rainbow entered Townsville. Pinkie was of course just being Pinkie. How else would she know the tune to "Yankee Doodle Dandy" when she sang "Yankee Doodle Donkey"? She just might be entering this dimension, but we don't know it, probably because she's able to take on a disguise that allows her to blend in. Her personality can't be hidden, though. If you know someone who is always very happy, bubbly, likes to throw or go to parties, and seems to always find a reason to celebrate, not to mention loves to sing and dance, and eat copious amounts of sweets or pastries, that person may just be Pinkie Pie in disguise.

I can't access YouTube right now, so I'm not 100% sure what style you're looking for. My taste in fan music is generally pretty similar to my taste in normal music - classic pop/rock, some more modern-style pop, a bit of orchestral and similar instrumental, and very rarely something more electronic, usually more towards ambient or trance than techno or dubstep. With that said, some of the pieces I can recommend are:

Pony Concerto - "Royal Wedding" by Yourenigma (straight-out classical, with motif from "This Day Aria")Between Fairytales and Happy Endings by PrinceWhateverer feat. Liquid Cobalt and ISMBOFepicly (guitar rock ballad about DerpyGate)Land of Equestria - Evening Star (Irish ballad/patriotic song)Love is in Bloom (Remix) by Aviators feat. Yelling at Cats and Hmage (Takes the first verse of the original song, adds extra lyrics and rap and boosts the backing track)My Cadence by Matthew Mosier feat. Megaphoric and ismBoF (a beautiful duet between Cadence and Shining Armor)Sweet Apple Acres by Replacer (filk of "Waterloo Sunset" by the Kinks)The Moon Rises by Ponyphonic (a Nightmare Night Villain Song, one of the absolute classics)Miles by dbPony feat. EileMonty (Apple Bloom pop rock song)Home by Aviators feat Poni1Kenobi (I'm not even sure how to desribe this one, but it's about Applejack when she was in Manehattan)Keep Calm and Canter On by Replacer (an entire album with a general laid back old-school Britpop feel, although there are hints of other genres)

I haven't listened to a lot of the above stuff, but I have heard the Living Tombstone version of Discord, and the Typography edit of 20 Percent Cooler by Alex S and Lulz. Both of them are regular members of my playlists now.

Ohhhhhhhhh, Tombstone Discord.....Now, I know that it's popular, I just didn't expect people here to like it. I prefer that song over the original, but that's just because I think Eurobeat sounds ridiculous.

I HATE TheLivingTombstone's music. Every sound he uses in every one of his songs just sounds...I dunno, "sickly" is the only way I can describe it. He tends to re-use melodies in multiple songs. He piles on more and more of these melodies onto a single song. His singing is only "pretty bad", but the actual WRITING of lyrics is atrocious. He appears to have no grasp of how English rhythms work and how the syllables are actually supposed to fit the rhythm of the song.

Then again, I listen to stuff I know is shit like Omnipony and (less shitty) Alex S. But I also listen to stuff I know is good like WoodenToaster/Glaze. It hurts a little every time I see both Glaze's and Tombstone's names on the same song.

3rdtry wrote:If there ever is another World War, I hope they at least have the decency to call it "World War 2: Episode One"

I mean, I haven't listened to them and I might even agree (I merely thought the Discord remix was catchy). I just don't get the apparent masochism

It's not masochism. It's just that I'll be enjoying some Omnipony and then think to myself, "Wait a minute, this sucks. I mean this is really stupid," and then go back to enjoying it regardless. I don't want to pretend I have good taste in music, but I also don't want to pretend that I'm oblivious to that.

3rdtry wrote:If there ever is another World War, I hope they at least have the decency to call it "World War 2: Episode One"

This just keeps getting better and better. I don't think I can get back to regular living, I'll have to live on the internet forever.I couldn't think of any clever comment, so here is something to drive the crazy home a bit more: YTPMV Orchestra

raudorn wrote:This just keeps getting better and better. I don't think I can get back to regular living, I'll have to live on the internet forever.I couldn't think of any clever comment, so here is something to drive the crazy home a bit more: YTPMV Orchestra

Oh man, I've never been able to find that one - it's not in the 'state playlist but was almost always run before 1000. Thanks.